Etymology

For other uses, seeEtymology (disambiguation).

"Etymologies" redirects here. For the work by Isidore of Seville, seeEtymologiae.

Not to be confused withEntomologyorEtiology.

Etymology(/ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/,ET-im-OL-ə-jee) is the study of the origin and evolution of words, including their constituent unitsof soundandof meaning,across time.In the 21st century a subfield withinlinguistics,etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study.Most directly tied tohistorical linguistics,philology,andsemiotics,it additionally draws upon comparativesemantics,morphology,pragmatics,andphoneticsin order to attempt a comprehensive and chronological catalogue of all meanings and changes that a word (and its related parts) carries throughout its history. The origin of any particular word is also known as itsetymology.

For languages with a longwritten history,etymologists make use of texts, particularly texts about the language itself, to gather knowledge about how words were used during earlier periods, how they developed inmeaningandform,or when and how theyenteredthe language. Etymologists also apply the methods ofcomparative linguisticsto reconstruct information about forms that are too old for any direct information to be available. By analyzing related languages with a technique known as thecomparative method,linguistscan make inferences about their shared parent language and its vocabulary. In this way,word rootsin many European languages, for example, can be traced back to the origin of theIndo-Europeanlanguage family.

Even though etymological research originated from the philological tradition, much current etymological research is done on language families where little or no early documentation is available, such asUralicandAustronesian.

Terminology

The wordetymologyis derived from the Ancient Greek wordἐτυμολογία(ἐτυμολογία), itself fromἔτυμον(ἔτυμον), meaning'true sense or sense of a truth',and the suffix-logia,denoting'the study or logic of'.

Theetymonrefers to the predicate (i.e. stemor root) from which a later word or morpheme derives. For example, the Latin wordcandidus,which means'white',is the etymon of Englishcandid.Relationships are often less transparent, however. Englishplace namessuch asWinchester,Gloucester,Tadcastershare in different modern forms asuffixedetymon that was once meaningful, Latincastrum'fort'.

Reflexis the name given to a descendant word in a daughter language, descended from an earlier language. For example, Modern English heat is the reflex of the Old English hǣtu. Rarely, this word is used in reverse, and the 'reflex' is actually the root word rather than the descendant word. However, this usage is usually filled by the termetymoninstead. A reflex will sometimes be described simply as adescendant,derivativeorderivedfrom an etymon (but see below).

Cognatesorlexical cognatesare sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language.Doubletsoretymological twinsortwinlings(or possibly triplets, and so forth) are specifically cognates within the same language. Although they have the same etymological root, they tend to have different phonological forms, and to have entered the language through different routes.

Arootis the source of related words within a single language (no language barrier is crossed). Similar to the distinction betweenetymonandroot,a nuanced distinction can sometimes be made between adescendantand aderivative.

Aderivativeis one of the words which have their source in a root word, and were at some time created from the root word using morphological constructs such as suffixes, prefixes, and slight changes to the vowels or to the consonants of the root word. For exampleunhappy,happily,andunhappilyare all derivatives of the root wordhappy.

The termsrootandderivativeare used in the analysis of morphological derivation within a language in studies that are not concerned with historical linguistics and that do not cross the language barrier.

Diagram showing relationships between etymologically related words

Methods

Etymologists apply a number of methods to study the origins of words, some of which are:

• Philologicalresearch. Changes in the form and meaning of the word can be traced with the aid of older texts, if such are available.
• Making use ofdialectologicaldata. The form or meaning of the word might show variations betweendialects,which may yield clues about its earlier history.
• Thecomparative method.By a systematic comparison of related languages, etymologists may often be able to detect which words derive from their common ancestor language and which were instead later borrowed from another language.
• The study ofsemantic change.Etymologists must often make hypotheses about changes in the meaning of particular words. Such hypotheses are tested against the general knowledge of semantic shifts. For example, the assumption of a particular change of meaning may be substantiated by showing that the same type of change has occurred in other languages as well.

Types of word origins

Etymological theory recognizes that words originate through a limited number of basic mechanisms, the most important of which arelanguage change,borrowing (i.e., the adoption of "loanwords"from other languages);word formationsuch asderivationandcompounding;andonomatopoeiaandsound symbolism(i.e., the creation of imitative words such as "click" or "grunt" ).

While the origin of newly emerged words is often more or less transparent, it tends to become obscured through time due to sound change or semantic change. Due tosound change,it is not readily obvious that the English wordsetis related to the wordsit(the former is originally acausativeformation of the latter). It is even less obvious thatblessis related toblood(the former was originally a derivative with the meaning "to mark with blood" ).

Semantic changemay also occur. For example, the English wordbeadoriginally meant "prayer". It acquired its modern meaning through the practice of counting the recitation of prayers by using beads.

History

The search for meaningful origins for familiar or strange words is far older than the modern understanding of linguistic evolution and the relationships of languages, which began no earlier than the 18th century. FromAntiquitythrough the 17th century, fromPāṇinitoPindarto SirThomas Browne,etymology had been a form of witty wordplay, in which the supposed origins of words were creatively imagined to satisfy contemporary requirements; for example, theGreek poetPindar(born in approximately 522 BCE) employed inventive etymologies to flatter his patrons.Plutarchemployed etymologies insecurely based on fancied resemblances insounds.Isidore of Seville'sEtymologiaewas an encyclopedic tracing of "first things" that remained uncritically in use in Europe until the sixteenth century.Etymologicum genuinumis agrammaticalencyclopediaedited atConstantinoplein the ninth century, one of several similarByzantineworks. The thirteenth-centuryLegenda Aurea,as written byJacobus de Varagine,begins eachvitaof a saint with a fancifulexcursusin the form of an etymology.

Ancient Sanskrit

Main article:Nirukta

TheSanskritlinguists and grammarians ofancient Indiawere the first to make a comprehensive analysis of linguistics and etymology. The study of Sanskrit etymology has provided Western scholars with the basis ofhistorical linguisticsand modern etymology. Four of the most famous Sanskrit linguists are:

• Yaska(c. 6th–5thcenturies BCE)
• Pāṇini(c. 520–460 BCE)
• Kātyāyana(6th-4th centuries BCE)
• Patañjali(2nd century BCE)

These linguists were not the earliest Sanskrit grammarians, however. They followed a line of ancient grammarians of Sanskrit who lived several centuries earlier likeSakatayanaof whom very little is known. The earliest of attested etymologies can be found inVedic literaturein the philosophical explanations of theBrahmanas,Aranyakas,andUpanishads.

The analyses ofSanskrit grammardone by the previously mentioned linguists involved extensive studies on the etymology (calledNiruktaorVyutpattiin Sanskrit) of Sanskrit words, because the ancient Indians considered sound and speech itself to be sacred and, for them, the words of the sacredVedascontained deep encoding of the mysteries of the soul and God.

Ancient Greco-Roman

One of the earliest philosophical texts of the Classical Greek period to address etymology was theSocratic dialogueCratylus(c. 360 BCE) byPlato.During much of the dialogue,Socratesmakes guesses as to the origins of many words, including the names of the gods. In hisOdesPindarspins complimentary etymologies to flatter his patrons.Plutarch(Life ofNuma Pompilius) spins an etymology forpontifex,while explicitly dismissing the obvious, and actual "bridge-builder":

The priests, called Pontifices.... have the name of Pontifices frompotens,powerful because they attend the service of the gods, who have power and command overall. Others make the word refer to exceptions of impossible cases; the priests were to perform all the duties possible; if anything lays beyond their power, the exception was not to be cavilled. The most common opinion is the most absurd, which derives this word from pons, and assigns the priests the title of bridge-makers. The sacrifices performed on the bridge were amongst the most sacred and ancient, and the keeping and repairing of the bridge attached, like any other public sacred office, to the priesthood.

Medieval

Main article:Medieval etymology

Isidore of Sevillecompiled a volume of etymologies to illuminate the triumph of religion. Each saint's legend inJacobus de Varagine'sLegenda Aureabegins with an etymological discourse on the saint's name:

Lucy is said of light, and light is beauty in beholding, after that S. Ambrose saith: The nature of light is such, she is gracious in beholding, she spreadeth over all without lying down, she passeth in going right without crooking by right long line; and it is without dilation of tarrying, and therefore it is showed the blessed Lucy hath beauty of virginity without any corruption; essence of charity without disordinate love; rightful going and devotion to God, without squaring out of the way; right long line by continual work without negligence of slothful tarrying. In Lucy is said, the way of light.

Modern era

Further information:Comparative method

Etymology in the modern sense emerged in the late 18th-century European academia, within the context of the wider "Age of Enlightenment",although preceded by 17th century pioneers such asMarcus Zuerius van Boxhorn,Gerardus Vossius,Stephen Skinner,Elisha Coles,andWilliam Wotton.The first known systematic attempt to prove the relationship between two languages on the basis of similarity ofgrammarandlexiconwas made in 1770 by the Hungarian,János Sajnovics,when he attempted to demonstrate the relationship betweenSamiandHungarian(work that was later extended to the wholeFinno-Ugric language familyin 1799 by his fellow countryman,Samuel Gyarmathi).

The origin of modernhistorical linguisticsis often traced toSir William Jones,a Welshphilologistliving inIndia,who in 1782 observed the genetic relationship betweenSanskrit,GreekandLatin.Jones published hisThe Sanscrit Languagein 1786, laying the foundation for the field ofIndo-European linguistics.

The study of etymology inGermanic philologywas introduced byRasmus Christian Raskin the early 19th century and elevated to a high standard with theGerman Dictionaryof theBrothers Grimm.The successes of the comparative approach culminated in theNeogrammarianschool of the late 19th century. Still in the 19th century, German philosopherFriedrich Nietzscheused etymological strategies (principally and most famously inOn the Genealogy of Morals,but also elsewhere) to argue that moral values have definite historical (specifically, cultural) origins where modulations in meaning regarding certain concepts (such as "good" and "evil" ) show how these ideas had changed over time—according to which value-system appropriated them. This strategy gained popularity in the 20th century, and philosophers, such asJacques Derrida,have used etymologies to indicate former meanings of words to de-center the "violent hierarchies" of Westernphilosophy.

Notable etymologists

• Ernest Klein(1899–1983), Hungarian-born Romanian-Canadian linguist, etymologist
• Marko Snoj(born 1959), Indo-Europeanist, Slavist, Albanologist, lexicographer, and etymologist
• Anatoly Liberman(born 1937), linguist, medievalist, etymologist, poet, translator of poetry and literary critic
• Michael Quinion(born c. 1943)

See also

• Examples
  • Etymological dictionary
  • Lists of etymologies
  • Place name origins
• Fallacies
  • Bongo-Bongo– Name for an imaginary language in linguistics
  • Etymological fallacy– Fallacy that a word's history defines its meaning
  • False cognate– Words that look or sound alike, but are not related
  • False etymology– Popular, but false belief about word origins
  • Folk etymology– Process of reinterpretive word formation
  • Malapropism– Misuse of a word
  • Pseudoscientific language comparison– Form of pseudo-scholarship
• Linguistic studies and concepts
  • Diachrony and synchrony– Complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis
    • Surface analysis(surface etymology)
  • Historical linguistics– Study of language change over time
  • Lexicology– Linguistic discipline studying words
  • Philology– Study of language in historical sources
  • Proto-language– Common ancestor of a language family
  • Onomastics– Study of proper names
    • Toponymy– Study of place names
  • Wörter und Sachen– science school of linguisticsPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Processes of word formation
  • Cognate– Words inherited by different languages
  • Epeolatry
  • Neologism– Recent term that is gaining acceptance
  • Phono-semantic matching– Type of multi-source neologism
  • Semantic change– Evolution of a word's meaning
  • Suppletion– A word having inflected forms from multiple unrelated stems

References

• Alfred Bammesberger.English Etymology.Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1984.
• Philip Durkin. "Etymology", inEncyclopedia of Language and Linguistics,2nd edn. Ed. Keith Brown. Vol. 4. Oxford: Elsevier, 2006, pp. 260–7.
• Philip Durkin.The Oxford Guide to Etymology.Oxford/NY: Oxford University Press, 2009.
• William B. Lockwood.An Informal Introduction to English Etymology.Montreux, London: Minerva Press, 1995.
• Yakov Malkiel.Etymology.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
• Alan S. C. Ross.Etymology, with a special reference to English.Fair Lawn, N.J.: Essential Books; London: Deutsch, 1958.
• Michael Samuels.Linguistic Evolution: With Special Reference to English.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
• Bo Svensén. "Etymology", chap. 19 ofA Handbook of Lexicography: The Theory and Practice of Dictionary-Making.Cambridge/NY: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Walther von Wartburg.Problems and Methods in Linguistics,rev. edn. with the collaboration of Stephen Ullmann. Trans. Joyce M. H. Reid. Oxford: Blackwell, 1969.

External links

• List of etymologies of words in 90+ languages
• Online Etymology Dictionary